Questions - Parshat B'Shallach

Shemot 13:17  to 13:22

1) What does the word B'Shallach actually mean? Is there another translation other than "let go out"?

2) Why does God choose to send the Israelites on a route out of Egypt that is not the easiest route?

3) Why does the text need to point out that the route that the Israelites will travel is not the easiest route even before they have departed and why is it called Derekh Ertez Plishtim/ by way of the land of the Philistines? (The term would not have been used at the time of the actual events. See note in Etz Hayim Torah commentary.)

4) How does God view the Israelite people at the moment of their liberation?

5) How have the Israelites armed themselves as they leave Egypt? Would they know how to wield the weapons that they had in their hands?

6) Where were the bones of Joseph? What spiritual role do these bones play?

7) The Israelites travel by day and night. How is this possible when they are a group that contains many children and elderly people? What would this have looked like?

Shemot 14

1) Ve-Yashuvu. God tells the Israelites through Moses to turn back. Turning back - Shuvu - is what God is afraid that the Israelites might want to do later if they had to face war. Why then would God want to use that exact word in an instruction to the people? What are they turning back from?

2) Why does God harden Pharaoh's heart (Va-Yihazek) again after the death of the firstborn? At what point can God agree to show mercy on the Egyptians? Is forgiveness possible after certain bad acts? Is the hardening of Pharaoh's heart this part of a Divine plan to create a story of God's power? Is it just more punishment of the Egyptians? Is it a lesson for the Israelites?

[Three different words are translated as "hardened." Is there really no nuance of meaning separating their meanings?]

3) Why does God need to harden Pharaoh's heart twice in order to motivate Pharaoh to go after the Israelites? What is the role of the people in Pharaoh's decision to go?

4) Chariots were formidable weapons for the time, however, was Pharaoh's army really enough to defeat the Israelites in numbers? What would a defeat of the Israelites have looked like? The goal of Pharaoh seems to have been to bring the Israelites back as slaves. Would that have worked?

5) In Chapter 2:23 the Israelites cried out (va-Yizaku with a Zayin). Here in 14;10 they cried out (va-Yitsaku with a Tsadi). How are these different and how are they the same?

6) Is there gallows humor in the cry of the Israelites to Moses? What does it mean that they question Moses' actions and not God's?

7) God says to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to move forward [yourself]. How well do Moses and God understand each other?

8) God has to harden the hearts of the Egyptians at the Reed Sea. This is the first time that we hear that God hardens their hearts (Me-hazek, translated as "Stiffen" in NJPS. Huh?). All along the Egyptian people seem to have had more free will than Pharaoh, why now does God suppress it?

9) Why does God need a Malach's involvement, and why is the Malach's presence only revealed at the Reed Sea?

10) How do you visualize the splitting of the Reed Sea?

11) When did the Israelite begin to cross the opening in the Reed Sea?

12) In 14: 25 the Egyptians say, "Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them." Are their hearts still "stiffened?"

13) "The Lord hurled the Egyptians into the sea." From where? Did God hurl them from the shore or did God hurl them from where the sea had parted into the sea itself (or both)? Why was this necessary when God could have just closed the sea over them?

14) Why the use of Va-yashuvu to describe the movement of the waters?

15) Had all of the Israelites gotten through to dry ground before God closed the sea over the Egyptians?

16) The Israelites see dead Egyptians on the shore. Would it make a difference if they only knew that the sea had swallowed them up?

 Chapter 15 - Shirat Ha-Yam

1) Shirat Ha-Yam is part of our prayer service everyday. The language is very literary and is believed to be an a text that pre-existed the Torah as a whole by those who apply biblical criticism. The invocation of the poem states that Moses and the people sang the song. Did they sing it together? The invocation has been absorbed into the whole as it is used as a prayer, but the first poetic line begin, Ashirah - I will sing. Who is the I? The obvious choice is the Moses. But are we to dismiss the previous statement that Moses and and the Israelites sang the song. Did they sing it together? Did only Moses sing it, or did Moses sing it and then the people sang it back to him in some way (From the beginning as a whole, call and response, etc.?).

2) Is the Song of the Sea Moses spontaneous song? Is it a prayer to him. Spontaneous prayer is less of a part of Jewish worship now? How do you feel about that?

3) What does it mean for Moses to say, "He is become my deliverance"? Is Moses' experience at this moment the same or similar to that of the other Israelites or is it singular to him?

4) Moses says, "The God of my father." His father is Amram. Why does he not invoke the Avot here?

5) In verse 12 Moses says, "The earth swallowed them." This is odd since we have been told repeatedly that the sea swallowed them. This can mean that the dead have gone to the underworld, but why is it said here even with that meaning?"

6) How do the other peoples hear and when? The Song implies that they are hearing almost in real time or perhaps in the time of the Song's recitation. Is this what God wanted all along, the thing that required all of the suffering of the Egyptians and the Israelites.

7) In verse 17 Moses announces that, "You will bring them and plan them in Your mountain." Obviously Sinai is the mountain, but what does this mean?

8) Miriam is announced as a Nevi'ah - a Prophetess. She goes and dances with the women. Is is clearly stated that she is the one who sings and it is not said that the other women sing with her, only dance. Does she sing her short song once only?

9) Why is Miriam described as Aaron's sister, but not also Moses' sister?

10) When the Israelites leave the shore of the Sea of Reeds they find no water for three days. Their mood changes dramatically. Can we draw a lesson from this?

11) Is a rule always a test?

12) God shows Moses the piece of wood that "cures" the water of its bitterness (and that cure cures the Israelites of their bitterness. Are we supposed to leave our health to God's responsibility? What is special about this miracle?

13) What is meant by "the diseases of Egypt? Are the diseases endemic to Egypt meant or are the plagues meant, or both?

Chapter 16

1) Va-Yisu - translated here as setting out in NJPS 12:37 set out , 14: 10, advanced. 40:36, 13: 20 set out, 15:22. The shoresh Nun, Samekh, Ayin is used frequently during this setting out period. Is there something special about this word. One might think it would be the standard word for setting out throughout Israel's journey's but it is clustered here. It is common in the early part of Genesis and appears in Numbers and Deuteronomy. The last usage of Va-Yisu as the specific form of the word in Exodus described how the Israelites would respond when the Anan Ha-Kavod would move.

2) "If only we had died by the hands the Lord in Egypt..." Even in their complaint the people seem to have accepted that they are in the hands of God at all times. They accept that they live and die by God's choice. Why then does God need to test them in harsh ways?

3) Compare God's response to the people's grumblings and Moses precis of God's message. What do we learn about Moses and his quality/Abilities as a leader at this moment?

4) What is the Manna? Does it help us to know? Moses calls it Ha-Lehem - The Bread? What does bread mean in the Jewish context?

5) The Israelites did so, some gathering much, some little. But when they measured it by the omer, he who had gathered much had no excess, and he who had gathered had no deficiency: they had gathered as much as they needed to eat. Can we see this as a messianic version of primitive communism?

6) Some of the Israelites save Manna for he next day. Why would they do that?

7) Is it helpful that Moses is angry with the Israelites for leaving some of the Manna uneaten? Are we to understand that this anger is expressed or unexpressed?

8) On the sixth day the people gather two omers of food and the elders go to Moses to talk about this. Moses tells them that this is what God had intended. The Israelite seem to understand how to prepare for Shabbat without it being explained. What are we to make of this?

9) Although they seem to understand some still try to gather Manna on Shabbat. They don't violate the Sabbath because there isn't any Manna to be found, but they intended to violate the Sabbath and they expressed a wish to have more than they needed. So, did Israelites really understand Shabbat. Was it really new to them?

10) The omer is a tenth of an ephah. NJPS commentary explains that the omer ceased to used as a unit of measure and this explanation is required in order to clarify the matter for later readers. It feels like a footnote has gotten absorbed into the text. How do you feel about this? How does it make you see Torah as a text?

Chapter 17 - To Be Completed.